DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX (July 17, 2007) - A new generation of data-centric services - T3 Telematics - is emerging today that will transform the international telematics market business model. According to Steve Millstein, president and CEO of ATX Group, annual service subscriptions for primarily emergency-related, location-based services will give way to a future where the core benefit of telematics services will likely be virtual connectivity with the vehicle, enabling telematics to become standard on every vehicle.
"T3, or third generation, telematics services will transform every vehicle into a voice browser, a data router, and a node on a wireless communications network." - Steve Millstein, President and CEO of ATX Group ATX Group is the world's second-largest provider of telematics services for the automobile industry, serving primarily North America and Europe. In addition, it is the largest independent telematics provider that is not owned by an automobile manufacturer or telecommunications firm. Currently, ATX telematics services are designed to provide enhanced safety, security and driving convenience to vehicle owners. Like other providers, these services include location-specific emergency and roadside assistance, automatic collision notification, stolen vehicle recovery, remote diagnostics and real-time traffic and navigation assistance. The company also provides telematics services designed to help automakers and their affiliated dealerships to use telematics data to reduce costs, enhance vehicle servicing, and more closely manage customer relationships. These OEM services include automated connection of a driver to a predetermined dealer to address service and vehicle-related questions, and remote access by OEMs to engine performance data through error codes and diagnostic information. A shift toward management centers "What we've long considered as the basic tenets of the telematics business will change - essentially becoming ancillary, added-value benefits to a new core of services that leverage the fact the car is simply a node on an information network," says Millstein. "These new services will be data-centric and will integrate VRM (vehicle relationship management), driver interactive vehicle applications (DIVA), voice-activated Web access into the vehicle, and information about the environment in which the vehicle is operating, as well as real-time, diagnostics information about the vehicle's operation and performance." The gradual transformation of telematics operations from call-center environments into data management centers has begun, driving the expansion of current telematics programs in both North America and Europe and providing new incentive for additional automobile manufacturers and other players - new to telematics - to enter the market. 3 pillars of growthWireless Communications - Wireless services obtained from wireless carriers such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to connect the enabled automobile to the telematics service provider.
Location Technology - Technology such as a satellite-based global positioning system that permits the telematics service provider to pinpoint the vehicle's coordinates.
Content - Defined as any data, information, group of service providers and other items necessary to deliver the selected functionality to the driver, the OEM or the dealer. Examples of content include mapping data for navigation services, real-time traffic information for traffic services and roadside assistance providers to support breakdown services.
Driver Information - Information supplied by the driver to provide personal relevance to the content or functionality designed into the program. This may include, for example, information about the vehicle (such as color and license plate number) to assist in roadside or emergency dispatch.
Millstein points to three specific areas where telematics is in the process of expanding beyond its traditional core of subscription- and location-based emergency, security and navigation services: Web Access, Vehicle-Generated Data and DIVA.
Web Access - Recent advances in the integration of natural-language voice technology into the vehicle has finally enabled the delivery of an IP address to the driver's seat. Content providers are now ready to deliver "geo-casts" - information that could be pushed or pulled to a vehicle anywhere, depending on customer choice. This enhanced information, most notably navigational directions and point of interest information, will replace many of the navigational-oriented information currently provided through embedded and aftermarket navigation devices.
Driver Interactive Vehicle Applications (DIVAs) - DIVAs allow the driver to continuously communicate with his and other vehicles, using any networked communications device to remotely control vehicle functions, to poll the car and its browser for information, or to download information to the car. In the past, remote polling of vehicles has primarily focused on potential traffic flow information, but in fact the car can also probe in real-time the temperature, precipitation, air quality and road conditions at any given location, as well as in-vehicle consumer behavior.
Vehicle Relationship Management (VRM) - VRM essentially is the realm of measuring the actions of a vehicle and its driver/owner and customizing services based on those actions. Currently, remote diagnosis of the vehicle's actual performance has been primarily associated with diagnosing "under the hood" problems prior to a vehicle's arrival to the service bay. In the future, data pulled from the vehicle will be used to better manage aftermarket parts and service, warranty and maintenance, leasing and financing, and to assist in the process of insurance claims.
One trend being developed for future applications is "automated voice telematics." Take, for instance, transforming the traditional owner's manual to automated voice-on-demand e-owner's manuals: Owners would have the ability to ask questions that pertains to a vehicle (how to set the clock, how to work the cruise control, etc.) and get immediate and targeted answers. Such technology is opening huge new potential for OEMs.
Another future focus is the trend toward developing "adaptive dialogues," using voice telematics to provide a personalized experience for the user by adapting the application to the user's needs. ATX says that customizing telematics experiences to meet real, individual needs will increase satisfaction levels, and raise both brand and service loyalty.
Millstein cites two key developments in North America that signal the emergence of T3 applications: BMW's decision to incorporate the four-year cost of its "Assist" telematics service into the MSRP of all of its vehicles; and General Motors' decision to make its OnStar telematics service standard on every one of its vehicles. As a result, he says, other Japanese and American automobile manufacturers are responding to consumer demand and competitive pressure and are working on T3 telematics deployment plans in North America.
(Source: ATX Group)
